Not only has it released an interactive audio drama for the Amazon Echo and Google Home, it’s gone ahead and released an Alexa skill that brings in all of the BBC’s local radio and podcast services – with support for other smart speakers coming in the near future.

There are 10 national, six United Kingdom and 40 local radio stations on offer, plus thousands of hours of podcasts now on the service.

Similar features and services will be rolled-out to other brands of smart speaker at a future date. It also enables the BBC to introduce pop-up stations throughout the year to cover a range of events, festivals and genres. The BBC is also the second-largest podcast producer in the world – 240m podcasts were downloaded past year, with The Archers, Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review and Woman’s Hour among the most popular. However, its latest skill is more fully fledged and enables you to listen to live radio shows and its entire line-up of podcasts on demand, started by using your voice.

To use it skill, audiences simply need to ask Alexa for the BBC Radio station or podcast they want.

Users can also “Play”, “Pause” and “Resume” everything they’re listening to. While Alexa is now the only assistant to have the new voice service, the BBC has confirmed that it will be coming to other assistants and smart speakers in the future.

This skill is in addition to the existing Flash Briefing news skill that has been available since launch, and the experimental interactive radio app from BBC R&D. “They’re a natural fit for the BBC, as millions of people enjoy and rely on our audio programmes every day”.

Amazon has broadened the reach of its Echo smart speakers to 28 additional countries around the globe. The music service, launched just over a year ago in the U.S., has a catalogue of over 40 million songs and is specifically designed with voice control in mind.